This one woman show is fast, gripping, clever and thought-provoking. It is set in a women’s prison in London and follows the backstories of the two main characters: Tracey the prison officer and Siobhan the inmate, as their lives begin to involve each other, in a narrative which shows manipulation at its most premeditated and slow-moving.

The distinction between these two characters was remarkably well drawn, showcasing the versatility of the sole performer Louise Beresford. The lighting snapped to red, we heard the clunk of cell doors, and Beresford switched seamlessly from sensible and interesting but bored Tracey, into inmate Siobhan’s sassy tight physicality and Northern Irish accent. There were tiny mannerisms which reminded you that you were watching the same actor again – the questioning tongue-on-lip for example – but if anything, noticing these just served to underline how impressive the overall effect had been. The suspension of disbelief achieved was not only striking but also very important to the piece; as Siobhan worked on Tracey, Beresford worked her magic on the audience too. Her breaking of the fourth wall was insidious, controlled and in its mirroring of the characters’ relationship, chilling.

Martin Murphy's script itself looked at the nature of human relations in many forms and in very different contexts. By having one performer playing both sides of a game of power play made explicit the differences in the characters’ behaviour, as well as encouraging an engagement with understanding their motivation from the audience. It was the sort of multilayered effect which rings around your head as you walk away from the theatre.